RUAHA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

This paper explores how Tagalile’s Endless Toil portrays female characters in his novel following the varied people’s attitudes and perspectives with regard to women and hence, their portrayal in literary works. The aim of the paper is to analyze the portrait with which female characters are identified in the novel. The inquiry is probed through a textual analysis of the novel. The data was collected through close reading of the primary text and analyzed in the light of African Feminist perspective. The findings from textual analysis show that some female characters are positively portrayed while others are negatively portrayed. Positive portrayals include challenging oppressive African traditional practices such as arranged marriages and harassing widows. Others are being hardworking, wise, tolerant, respected, generous and being a role model in good moral values. The negative portraits include women as prostitutes, slanderers, gossipers and victims of oppressive cultural practices. This negative image is influenced by societal gender stereotyping.

Tagalile’s Endless Toil